What’s the Meaning of ChillOut? Rural/Urban Difference and The Cultural Significance of Australia’s Largest Rural GLBTQ Festival

Abstract

There is growing concern with the experiences of gay, lesbian, bisexual, transsexual/transgender and queer identifying subjects (GLBTQ) living in and visiting rural areas. Simultaneously, rural studies scholars across various disciplines argue that the meaning and experience of ‘rural’ changes with variations in residence, gender, class, ethnicity, sexuality, inter alia. This paper contributes to GLBTQ rural studies by investigating the range of meanings invoked across different GLBTQ groups by ChillOut, Australia’s largest rural GLBTQ festival, held annually in Daylesford, Victoria. Data is drawn from a visitors’ survey, conducted at the 2006 festival, which seeks to understand ChillOut’s role in GLBTQ lives and its impact on Daylesford. Differences exist in the cultural significance of ChillOut and its rural setting expressed by GLBTQ individuals attending the festival from urban and rural areas. In particular, while the rurality of the festival is crucial for all, its meaning and experience shift across groups: urbanites invoke the idyllic country setting as a place to ‘chill out’, while rural residents stress the politicised catalysing effect of having a GLBTQ festival in a rural place. Thus, this analysis also adds to recent work on the diverse roles of festivals in generating senses of place, community and identity in rural Australia.